AN ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACT USED BY THE CHILDREN OF 3-5 YEARS OLD STUDENT AT JEMBATAN BUDAYA SCHOOL BADUNG

Abstract

This study aimed at describing and analyzing the types of speech act and the functions of speech act produced by 3-5 years old students at Jembatan Budaya School Badung. Here, Searle’s theory (1979) is used as the grand theory for analyzing the types of speech act and Leech’s theory (1991) is used for the function of speech act. The research was conducted at Jembatan Budaya School Badung. The subjects of the research were the pre-school students of 3-5 years old in communication. To obtain the intended data, three methods of data collection were used, namely; observation, recording, and note taking. There are three instruments used, namely; researcher, observation, and video recorder. The data obtained were analyzed by using descriptive qualitative method. This research discovered two findings as the aims of this research. First, the most frequent type of speech act used by the children of 3-5 years old student is directive, which is followed by commissive, representative, and expressive. Specifically, (1) the children used 6% utterances in representative category, (2) the children used 44% utterances in directive category, (3) the children used 24% utterances in expressive category, (4) the children used 26% utterances in commissive category. Second, the children of 3-5 years old students mostly created speech act for the competitive function, which is followed by convivial function, and conflictive function. Whereas collaborative function did not appear in those children’s communication. The implication of this study is to learn and master pragmatics, especially in the theory of speech acts to be able to understand the speaker’s intention so that the communication expressed is able to be fulfilled.